I can't understand why someone of Brian Epstein's stature hasn't been given the nod for the Ertegun Award. Of course, Eppy was the man who brokered the deal that brought about a merger between The Beatles and the world but his association with other Merseyside acts and his sponsorship of Hendrix, Procol Harum and a plethora of other 1960s musical stalwarts should make him a shoo-in. Oh, yeah, that's right: I forgot that we're dealing with Prima Janna Wenner.

It's all Brian's fault, the slacker, since he has been languishing in a grave for the last 45 years. That's why his contributions have been subjected to slander and his memory supplanted by the latter day fableists who had about as much to do with The Beatles success as General William Sherman had in establishing an Atlanta branch of Pyromaniacs Anonymous.

Ahmet Ertegun is one of the most important person in the modern recording industry. He founded Atlantic Records in 1947 and it was at the forefront of the great independent record labels like Chess and Sun that popped up in the late 40s, challenging the major lables like Decca and Columbia by discovering and nurturing new singers.

With Ahmet's guiding hand, Atlantic became the nation's premier R&B lable in the early 50s. The lable's artist list is a roll call of 50s R&B singers: Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Big Joe Tuner, The Coasters and Aretha Franklin were just some of the many artists sighed to Atlantic's lable. During this time, Ertegun produced or coproduced the vast majority of albums released by the lable. He even wrote songs in Atlantic's early days.

Even if he was less of a producer, Ahmet kept going at Atlanic's helm in the 60s and 70s as the lable continued to conquer rock and roll by sighing such groups as Cream, Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly, Foreigner and The Rolling Stones with enormous success.

Thank you so much Ahmet for finding and promoting such wonderful singers. God bless you!

Although Mr. Ertegun and his brother Nesuhi were by all accounts very interesting and cultured people, he was complicit in denying royalties to many old blues/R & B singers, including those who had their music 'sampled' by Led Zeppelin (for example).

It took suits by these artists and/or their descendents to obtain the royalties they had been entitled to years before the suits were filed. Some of these artists were living in abject poverty, and in some cases died in abjext poverty.